Negotiating Principles for LSST International Affiliates

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1 Negotiating Principles for LSST International Affiliates Sidney Wolff, LSST President Tony Tyson, LSST Director August 2, 2012 LSST Document Overview This document outlines the rights and responsibilities of international collaborating institutions, and their affiliated scientists, in the development and operations of the sky survey which will be carried out by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The guiding principles are that access to LSST survey data with no proprietary period will require financial support for LSST operations, and that in return, the designated scientists at institutions who submitted letters of intent to contribute to operations will have the same access to data as U.S. and Chilean astronomers. The principles outlined in this document will apply only to those institutions that have already submitted letters of intent. This document is intended to focus discussions with this special group of international partners. The LSST construction budget is fully subscribed, and we do not require additional contributions to construction. We recognize, however, that many groups will want to prepare in advance to use LSST survey data effectively as soon as it becomes available. Preparation might include becoming familiar with LSST simulated data, data reprocessed by LSST, querying tools, database structures, etc. We want to enable this advance engagement but are required to do it in such in a way that it does not increase our construction cost. We outline here a process by which international collaborators can become meaningfully engaged in the LSST project early, in addition to their eventual support of a share of operations costs. In summary, we propose that international partners have the option of following a phased engagement scenario, similar to the one in place already for US institutions, in which their level of interaction with the project will require offsetting the cost to the project of providing user support and other support. LSST The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST, see is a telescope, camera, and data system being constructed with funds from private philanthropic sources, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The LSST Corporation (LSSTC) was founded to promote, design and build the LSST. Membership in the LSSTC currently consists of 34 U.S.-based institutions, the country of Chile, and the Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) in France. The LSSTC is an autonomous Center 1

2 of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA, see The LSST is an open-data, open-source software project for all U.S. based scientists, scientists affiliated with Chilean institutions, and specified scientists at IN2P3. In addition, there are a few scientists outside the US and Chile who have been significantly involved in LSST R&D. Except as defined below, data access by scientists who do not fall into one of these categories is limited and includes certain proprietary periods specified in the LSST document LSST Data Rights. When the LSST begins operations, the annual operations cost, including data processing, will be substantial. The U.S. funding agencies have instructed the LSSTC to identify additional sources of funds comprising about $10M USD/year (in 2011 USD) in operations costs, or about 30% of the total. To that end, the LSSTC has established a new membership category in the LSSTC, referred to as the LSST International Affiliate. An LSST International Affiliate is a classification for an organization, such as an institute, university, or government agency, that agrees to share in the annual operating costs of the LSST in exchange for data rights for a specified list of their principal investigators during LSST operations and commissioning. Rights may also include access to specified project resources prior to operations. Rights also come with responsibilities, similar to those required of U.S.-based scientists, regarding unauthorized redistribution of data (discussed below. ) Starting years before the sky survey begins, an important value to an International Affiliate is in gaining access to project know-how. Like collaborating scientists in the U.S., International Affiliates are encouraged to become engaged with research and development activities that will facilitate their own science and whenever possible collaborate with others involved with LSST and the data. In order to support this active engagement with the LSST project, International Affiliate institutions will be expected to pay a modest annual fee to offset administrative and support costs of access to LSST computing systems, pre-survey simulated data and data products, and user support. The terms and conditions for each International Affiliate (hereafter: Affiliate) will be specified in an individually negotiated Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between LSSTC and the Affiliate organization. This current document provides a basic framework for developing those MOAs, but we have the flexibility to allow each MOA to be slightly different in order to accommodate the unique requirements of individual organizations. At the same time, the agreements will be negotiated in good faith to be equitable arrangements offering equivalent costs, benefits, and responsibilities for all Affiliates. This document establishes guidelines for negotiating acceptable MOA s that follow basic principles established by the LSSTC. 2

3 Basic Principles of International Affiliate Agreements 1. Affiliate benefits, responsibilities, and their effective dates will be specified in each MOA. In all cases, phased benefits begin after the MOA is fully executed by both parties. 2. MOA negotiations can begin immediately. With the recent authorization for the NSF Director to include LSST construction funding in a future U.S. federal budget, MOAs will be executed by July 1, Each Affiliate institution will contribute a minimum annual cash contribution of $20,000 USD (in 2011 USD, inflated to the year of payment) per year for ten years for support of operations, starting at commissioning, for each identified Affiliate principal investigator (PI). Affiliates will also be expected to cover the incremental costs of enabling their access to the data, such as the costs of additional bandwidth or computing. We estimate that the costs of expanding the Data Access Centers to provide the same access as currently planned for U.S. and Chilean astronomers will be $1500 (again in 2011 USD) per PI per year, starting as soon as access is desired. A provisional list of the designated PIs will be supplied as part of the MOA, to be updated as personnel change. Commissioning begins upon the successful completion of Engineering First Light, and is expected to take 2 years. The first payment for support of operations will be due at the beginning of LSST commissioning and will repeat thereafter on a yearly basis for 10 years, thus always 2 years prior to the year of operations to which it applies. 3. Identified Affiliate staff (equivalent to a faculty member at a US university), including a maximum of two of their post doctoral assistants and a similar number of their own graduate students, gain full access to LSST data and source code without any proprietary period, equivalent to the access by a U.S. scientist and with the same rights and responsibilities. Generally postdocs and graduate students may not retain data rights if they leave the Affiliate institution. In rare cases of mutual interest an MOA may be written between the LSST project and such a Continuing Collaborator. The list of principal investigators at Affiliate institutions may be revised or extended by renegotiation of the MOA at any time. 4. Affiliate institutions will be expected to ensure that LSST data and data products are only accessible by the agreed upon list of staff members identified in the MOA. They shall periodically certify that their local data 3

4 distribution infrastructure is compatible with such restricted access. The MOA shall explicitly specify how this will be enforced. 5. The terms and conditions of each MOA are flexible but the LSSTC cannot accept any agreement that increases the LSST cost of construction. The construction budget is fully subscribed; the Letters of Intent commitments are for operations only. However we recognize that many groups will want to prepare in advance to use LSST survey data effectively as soon as it becomes available. Preparation might include becoming familiar with LSST simulated data, data reprocessed by LSST, querying tools, database structures, et cetera, and we wish to facilitate that. 6. Upon execution of the operations support MOA, identified Affiliate staff and their postdocs and students may without additional payment: a. Have full access to LSST simulated data and to data products produced through processing of the simulated data; b. Attend at their own expense All Hands Meetings and other LSST meetings open to U.S. and Chilean scientists who are directly participating in the LSST project. 7. In addition the project would like to enable Affiliate early engagement, in a cost-neutral way. LSST staff support of early involvement by Affiliates will require manpower that cannot be covered as part of the construction budget. The cost of this support must be offset by payment of a yearly fee, which will depend on how many institutions wish to take advantage of this benefit. Upon execution of both the MOA covering operation and a separate addendum to cover pre-survey activities, the identified Affiliate staff may: a. Apply to join a LSST Science Collaboration following the same membership application process as U.S. scientists; b. Have full access to LSST reprocessed data from other open surveys; c. Have access to documentation and support on use of data products and share in evaluation of data challenges equivalent to U.S. scientists; d. Obtain technical specifications and software code developed for LSST Data Management. 8. At the beginning of commissioning and into operations, Affiliates may: a. Participate in policy setting for LSST operations by contributing to periodic evaluation of observing strategy and optimization studies; b. Have full access to LSST image data, daily-release catalogs, and annual data release catalogs equivalent to U.S. and Chilean scientists; c. Have access to LSST Data Access Centers: This access will be equivalent to what is provided to U.S. and Chilean scientists, with the same privileges and responsibilities. d. Have access to products prepared (in English) for Education and Public Outreach activities. 4

5 9. At no time may Affiliates and the identified Affiliate staff: a. Re-distribute LSST data, data products, or their own derived catalogs for the full LSST survey beyond their postdocs and graduate students and other authorized users [except in summary form as part of a scientific publication in the open literature]. b. Apply for additional computational resources existing at U.S. sponsored Data Access Centers, without fully subsidizing the corresponding cost. c. Make third party agreements to redistribute or reassign LSST data and access rights that are provided to the Affiliate through the MOA. 10. The LSSTC shall conduct negotiations and give priority to any organization that has already submitted Letters of Intent for participation in LSST operations. In the future the LSSTC may elect to accept additional applicants. The benefits to future applicants will, however, likely be less or the costs higher than the terms offered to those institutions that submitted Letters of Intent prior to May 1, In the future LSST may enter into negotiation with multi-national or country-wide consortia, with corresponding increased support of operations; in such a situation Affiliates that are subsumed under such an agreement would of course not be expected to continue to separately support operations. In such a case the general principle of counting individual investigators in calculating the contribution to operations would still apply. 11. MOAs will include terms stating that either party is free to terminate the MOA with two years notice. All rights received under the terms of the MOA will be ended upon termination. One of the responsibilities (indeed benefits) of Affiliates is to become closely involved in the LSST project early by contributing in-kind to the work of the science collaborations (for example: testing and validation of data processing pipelines) prior to commissioning [via LSST project approval]. If an Affiliate wishes to make such a contribution the proposed work should be outlined in the application to join a science collaboration. 12. Candidate Affiliates writing MOAs who want to participate more broadly in LSST construction prior to or during commissioning are encouraged to present proposals to the LSST Director. 5